The operating system , also referred to as the OS, is the most
important software on the computer. It is responsible for
providing an interface with the hardware, displaying an interface
for users to work with, and acting as a base for other software
programs to be run on. Without an operating system, a computer would be
nearly useless .When a computer first starts, the BIOS (Basic Input
Output System is the first thing to load. This BIOS performs several basic
tasks, before looking for the Operating System to load. It can
be booted from any source - such as a floppy disk or CD-ROM -
but it is more commonly found to be on the computer's hard
drive.Once the Operating System has been located, the kernel
of the operating system is usually loaded. The kernel is the core
of the operating system and it handles the majority of low-level
activities, such as controlling hardware through specific
written software known as drivers. The kernel then loads
further parts of the operating system as necessary. This
includes the user interface (or shell) so that the user can
interact with the computer.The shell will usually provide the
user with a platform from which they can navigate file systems,
run utilities and run applications software.
There are four basic types of Operating System:
- Batch, Real Time, Interactive, Network
Batch systems were the first in existence and can still be
found on some mainframes today running batches of jobs.
Examples can often be hard to think of, but tasks such as
processing tax demands have always been best suited to batch
Real Time operating systems need to have a quick response so
that data processing can be kept up-to-date and accurate - this
if often used in situations such as air flight booking, or it could
be embedded in something as precise as a missile.
When an operating system relies on a lot of input from the
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